Meet John Boehner, corporate bag man

[Hannah Bell]

JOHN BOEHNER is tired of business as usual in Washington. He should be--he's been at it a long time.

Boehner had already served in Congress for four years, and in the Ohio legislature six years before that, when he joined "outsiders" Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey in their so-called "Republican Revolution," which swept congressional Democrats out of power in 1994.

With the mantra of cutting "big government" down to size, Boehner helped craft the "Contract with America," mean-spirited legislation that aimed to cut programs like welfare to poor families, while promoting the idea that poor people need to start taking "personal responsibility" for their poverty...

BUT "OUTSIDER" Boehner is probably best known for his amazing fund-raising abilities. In preparation for the mid-term elections, he worked every fundraising dinner, golf outing and cocktail party to rake in money for the Republican Party...

If Boehner is a great fundraiser, it's because he has practice. A lot. Early in his career, he organized a weekly get-together on Capitol Hill nicknamed the "Thursday Group," in which conservative leaders and corporate lobbyists met to discuss what to prioritize on the legislative agenda.

In 1995, Boehner handed out checks from the political action committee of tobacco company Brown and Williamson--on the floor of the House of Representatives.

...Boehner learned his lesson, and now he's just a little less bald-faced about getting his bagman job done. Just a little...

Even in a city where corruption and peddling political influence is the status quo, John Boehner gives Washington a bad, bad name.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/meet-john-boehner-corporate-bag-man


Charley Rangel gets investigated over Congressional stationery; Boner is taking hundreds of thousands under the table & it doesn't ring a single bell.

Congress = legal bribery.